Former Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield Added to NFC Pro Bowl Roster

The Sooners former star quarterback had the best year of his career but wasn't voted onto the NFC team, but was chosen as an alternate when Jayden Daniels opted out.

Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Baker Mayfield is back in the Pro Bowl. And he won't have to go far.

With Washington QB Jayden Daniels’ decision to withdraw from this week’s Pro Bowl Games, the former Sooners star is back in the NFL’s all-star weekend in Orlando.

Mayfield, who just finished his second season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was named MVP of last year’s Pro Bowl. He also won the Precision Passing Challenge during the Skills Showdown with Houston’s C.J. Stroud. 

During the game itself, the always entertaining Mayfield wore a microphone to give fans an inside look at his gameday mentality.

For the Bucs this season, Mayfield put up the best numbers of his career, completing 71.4 percent of his passes for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns while also throwing 16 interceptions. His NFL passer rating was over 96 for the first time in his career, reaching 106.8 by the end of the season.

Mayfield has found a home in Tampa, where the Bucs signed him to a three-year, $100 million deal last March, including $50 million guaranteed, and he's led the team to back-to-back NFC South Division titles and two straight playoff appearances.

Mayfield is the seventh Sooner named to Saturday’s Pro Bowl, joining Chiefs center Creed Humphrey (his third, but he won’t play due to his preparation for Super Bowl 59), Broncos edge rusher Nic Bonitto (a starter in his first Pro Bowl), Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (his fourth Pro Bowl), Texans running back Joe Mixon (his second), Broncos punt returner Marvin Mims (his second) and Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson (his seventh, but he’s also in the Super Bowl).

Mayfield hails from Austin, TX, where he was a late-bloomer at Lake Travis High School. He walked on at Texas Tech, where he played for Kliff Kingsbury, and was named Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year as he became the first true freshman to win the starting QB job as a walk-on at a Power 5 school.

Kingsbury declined to give Mayfield an athletic scholarship, so he walked on at his favorite childhood program — Oklahoma — where he would play two seasons for Bob Stoops and one for Lincoln Riley. After sitting out a year per Big 12 and NCAA transfer rules, he won the starting job in 2015 and became a Sooner legend, winning three straight Big 12 championships, leading his team to two College Football Playoff appearances and winning the 2017 Heisman Trophy.